Asking the watch officer for bearing and distance works fine in the game. The problem is that getting an accurate range in real life was VERY difficult unless you had a radar. I know the H.Sie patch adds inaccuracy to the watch officer's estimates but he is still way too good. This is the problem with the "3 minutes 15 seconds" dodge for getting target speed and bearing. It's annoying because asking the watch officer for an accurate bearing and a very rough range ESTIMATE would be perfectly valid IMHO and very useful to "watch your back" while you focus on a particular target.
The stadimeter relies on an accurate ship ID, an accurate manual and a knowledge of the ship's current load! Tonci87 is usually very good in using techniques that are historically valid and refuses to use the recognition manual for merchant ship data.
Having said all that it's just a game with a zillion things wrong with it and you have to choose how to compromise. For a long time when following a convoy I used to spam the "L" key to lock on to targets i knew were there but could not actually see. Not realistic but gets round the too short spotting distances in most daytime weather conditions.
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